Is Everybody Happy??

I am not a huge believer in polls. I think that regardless of statistical sampling size and other factors, the way that questions are ordered, worded and who you ask still affects the outcome in ways that belie objectivity.

Allow me to summarize. The Gallupians use three categories to segment employees: engaged (in their companies), not engaged, and actively disengaged. It may surprise no one to hear that 30 percent of American workers are engaged in their work, 51 percent are not engaged, and 19 percent are actively disengaged. A sad state of affairs indeed.

What can you do about this??

I would suggest two things:

1) it turns out that many economic sleuths are actually willing to admit that there’s a relationship between engaged workers and your company’s bottom line. Personally, I don’t feel like anyone should even have to make that case, but next time you bump into your CFO in the elevator, ask her if she believes that to be the case. If not, dust up your resume.

2) there was an editorial in the New York Times this past week that referenced the Gallup engagement survey but also proclaimed to find a root cause relationship that will change your workers’ sense of engagement for the better. Get this! As a manager, you should acknowledge and praise incremental progress in your team’s work. That’s what keeps them engaged! Brilliant! It gets better. When 669 managers were asked to rank 5 motivators, 95 percent of them ranked “supporting progress” dead last.